Is this ok for £299? Acer Swift 1 29 July 2018 at 2:35PM in Techie Stuff 36 replies 3K views

SnowWhiterThanWhite

Hi, I am looking for a laptop for basic browsing, and photo storage.
A backlit keyboard would be great too.
Came across an Acer Swift 1 for £299.
Here are the specs;
Operating System Windows 10 Home
Operating System Architecture 64-bit
Processor & Chipset
Processor Manufacturer Intel
Processor Type Pentium
Processor Model N4200
Processor Speed 1.10 GHz
Processor Core Quad-core (4 Core)
Cache 2 MB
Memory
Standard Memory 4 GB
Memory Technology DDR3L SDRAM
Memory Card Reader Yes
Memory Card Supported SD
Storage
Flash Memory Capacity 64 GB
Optical Drive Type No
Display & Graphics
Screen Size 33.8 cm (13.3")
Display Screen Type LCD
Display Screen Technology
In-plane Switching (IPS) Technology
ComfyView
Screen Mode Full HD
Backlight Technology LED
Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080
Graphics Controller Model HD Graphics 505
Graphics Memory Technology DDR3L SDRAM
Graphics Memory Accessibility Shared
Audio
Speakers Yes
Number of Speakers 2
Network & Communication
Wireless LAN Yes
Wireless LAN Manufacturer Intel
Wireless LAN Model Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265
Wireless LAN Standard IEEE 802.11ac
Bluetooth Yes
Built-in Devices
Microphone Yes
Fingerprint Reader Yes
Interfaces/Ports
HDMI Yes
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 1
Number of USB 3.0 Ports 2
Total Number of USB Ports 4
Input Devices
Pointing Device Type TouchPad
Keyboard Included Yes
Keyboard Backlight Yes
Battery Information
Number of Cells 3-cell
Battery Chemistry Lithium Polymer (Li-Polymer)
Battery Capacity 3770 mAh
Maximum Battery Run Time 10 Hour
Power Description
Maximum Power Supply Wattage 45 W
Physical Characteristics
Colour Silver
Height 15 mm
Width 319.5 mm
Depth 225 mm
Weight (Approximate) 1.30 kg
Miscellaneous
Package Contents
Swift 1 SF113-31-P6WY Ultrabook
Lithium Polymer Battery
AC Adapter
Security Features
Kensington Lock Slot

Would appreciate feedback. Cheers.

Debbie_Savard

>Processor Model N4200
Processor Speed 1.10 GHz<

Hopelessly slow for anything but web browsing and writing emails.

Can you stretch to the Lenovo IdeaPad 320S at £370 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-IdeaPad-320S-Laptop-White/dp/B078YTTF7H

onomatopoeia99

It uses SD RAM for its permanent storage so the amout of storage space is limited in modern terms (64GB). Once you've got Windows and some applications on there it won't leave that much space to store photos and experience suggests with Windows doing big updates every six months, you need quite a lot of free space to store the update and process it. Look for something with more permanent storage.



Processor clock speed has a lot less significance than it used to as they tend to keep the clock speeds down for power and cooling reasons nowadays and make up the performance elsewhere, The processor is certainly not fast, but nor does it need to be for "basic browsing" and photo storage.

Chino

Debbie_Savard wrote: »

Can you stretch to the Lenovo IdeaPad 320S at £370

Why would anyone want to when it has this specification?
"Screen Resolution 1366 x 768
Maximum Display Resolution 1366 x 768"

At least the laptop proposed by the OP has a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution.

benson1980

If you just want basic browsing and photo storage a chromebook would provide you a much more pleasurable i.e quicker user experience for the same or less cost

SnowWhiterThanWhite

benson1980 wrote: »

If you just want basic browsing and photo storage a chromebook would provide you a much more pleasurable i.e quicker user experience for the same or less cost

Thanks, will have to look at Chromebooks, are you able to advise to a non-techi the pros over a standard laptop?
Many thanks

SnowWhiterThanWhite

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Thanks, will have to look at Chromebooks, are you able to advise to a non-techi the pros over a standard laptop?
Many thanks

Don't worry, have found a good comparison with pros and cons, my only concern is I'm not comfortable with storage in the cloud, prefer on-board storage!

benson1980

Storage wise I've got 16gb which in terms of useable space that shows up in my storage management is around 10gb. Stored on my device I have a few documents/pdfs, around 100 photos, a handful of 1gb movies, apps, and I still have 5gb free which is probably around 1500 photos worth? Also mine (and I believe most) have SD card slots to expand. You can obviously get 32 and 64gb hard drives on many chromebooks if that's important to you.

I don't think you'll find storage is an issue. The OS isn't as bloated so uses up less space.

It will be a much quicker option. I've just spent the morning on my parents budget windows laptop trying to set up chromecast for them and my god it is painfully slow when you are used to chrome os. Just switching it on it immediately took 5 minutes to install the latest windows 10 update.

They're also much easier to use straight out of the box- no need to install anti virus etc.

SnowWhiterThanWhite

benson1980 wrote: »

Storage wise I've got 16gb which in terms of useable space that shows up in my storage management is around 10gb. Stored on my device I have a few documents/pdfs, around 100 photos, a handful of 1gb movies, apps, and I still have 5gb free which is probably around 1500 photos worth? Also mine (and I believe most) have SD card slots to expand. You can obviously get 32 and 64gb hard drives on many chromebooks if that's important to you.

I don't think you'll find storage is an issue. The OS isn't as bloated so uses up less space.

It will be a much quicker option. I've just spent the morning on my parents budget windows laptop trying to set up chromecast for them and my god it is painfully slow when you are used to chrome os. Just switching it on it immediately took 5 minutes to install the latest windows 10 update.

They're also much easier to use straight out of the box- no need to install anti virus etc.

That's really helpful. Thankyou

stevenhp1987

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Don't worry, have found a good comparison with pros and cons, my only concern is I'm not comfortable with storage in the cloud, prefer on-board storage!

I've got Acer Chromebook 14, 4gb ram, 32 gb ssd which cost £250 when I bought it. A cursory look shows it's available from Currys for £299 - I did see it in CostCo for around £250 after tax a couple days ago (Southampton store)

It boots up in seconds. I always use the on-board storage! of the 32gb, 24.5gb is available.

I have used 11.9gb - and that includes several Android games, sideloading Ubuntu with Steam. If you are non-technical then I wouldn't recommend sideloading Ubuntu to access Steam.

I would ensure you have at least 4gb ram and 32gb ssd with a Chromebook if you want to play Android games and sideload Ubuntu. 2gb ram would be slower and I wouldn't recommend that unless you wanted a cheap £150 machine purely for browsing the internet.

If all you want is to browse the internet and play some casual games then a Chromebook is great - but do choose one with Android capabilities if you want to play casual games! Android "board games" like Catan, Splendor & Ticket to Ride work remarkably well with a keyboard and mouse!

When comparing a Chromebook to a Windows machine remember you are comparing Apples against Pears. A Chromebook with 4gb ram will perform several times better than a Windows machine with 4gb ram due to the resources it hogs.

We also have an Acer Swift3 in this household which is a good Windows machine for the price.

benson1980

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

That's really helpful. Thankyou

No problem. I was in a similar position earlier in the year and wanted a cheapish second laptop for browsing/streaming etc. As has just been added the ability to download android apps is great, such as mobdro if youre that way inclined. My main laptop is a new ish MacBook Air but we use the chromebook pretty much all of the time now.

It has been a complete revelation. The non techie other half and in laws absolutely love it as its so quick browsing and theres some great options at your price point. Rather than shopping for a bargain basement windows machine this is around mid range and can get you something quite nice. You can get some good features such as touchscreen or the acer chromebook 14 which is aluminium casing and styled like the macbook air. They also work really well with chromecast obviously which is again perhaps a mainstream activity for the ordinary laptop user, or certainly one that we use a lot